Quebec Premier François Legault is defending an order forcing a hospital in Lachute to remove its bilingual signs.

It comes after the Office quebecois de la langue francaise, which enforces the province’s French language charter, recently contacted the hospital and told it take down English signs inside and outside the facility.

Asked about the decision Thursday in Montreal, Legault said the change is necessary.

“We have to follow the law and they didn’t. They weren’t respecting the law. Bill 101 has to be respected that’s what we’ll do,” he said. “As you know, Anglophones will keep on having the right to have services in education in health care. I don’t see the importance of having bilingual signs.”

MONTREAL — An edict from Quebec’s language watchdog that a hospital northwest of Montreal must remove English from its bilingual signage has angered municipal officials.

The Office quebecois de la langue francaise, which enforces the province’s French language charter, recently contacted the hospital in Lachute, Que. and told it take down English signs inside and outside the facility.

Scott Pearce, the mayor of nearby Gore, said the language watchdog is needlessly stirring up trouble in a community that prides itself on not having any language strife.

“A lot of Quebec could learn from our region. We don’t have these language debates. We get along great. We love each other, we do things together, we work together,” Pearce said Wednesday. “Maybe that problem exists elsewhere, but it doesn’t exist here, so don’t bring your problems here is how we look at it.”

This op-ed was published in the Montreal Gazette on August 31, 2017 and co-signed by James Shea, president and Geoffrey Chambers, vice-president.

“Bill 101’s adoption 40 years ago marked a milestone in Quebec language politics. To better understand its significance, we must see it as part of a longer continuum. History, nuance and context will best serve as our lenses.”

The Charter of the French Language did not make French the sole official language of Quebec. Premier Robert Bourassa did that in 1974, with Bill 22. He was, in turn, building off Union Nationale premier Jean-Jacques Bertrand’s Bill 63. That 1969 law sought to establish French as the working language.

Similarly, the operation of the Charter of the French Language has evolved significantly through the four decades that followed its adoption in 1977. Bill 101 initially restricted the use of English in the courts and the National Assembly. It asserted that laws must be adopted only in French. Those limitations were stuck down by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1979.

Restrictions preventing English schooling in Quebec for the children of Canadians educated in English in other provinces were ruled unconstitutional. Rules governing signs and many other provisions have also been the subject of successful court challenges. The second government of premier René Lévesque substantially amended the Charter. Other significant changes were made on six subsequent occasions.

Bill 101 remains a perennial prospect for judicial review. For example, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Art. 26.3, grants parents “a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.” To protect the French language in Quebec, the Supreme Court has allowed this right be abridged for most Quebecers, a group that includes all francophones and all non-Canadian migrants. However, this suspension of civil liberties for the vast majority of Quebecers can only be temporary and transitional. Their underlying rights are not erased forever. Instead, these rights are suspended, to allow a period of adjustment. Current rules that govern access to English schools could and should eventually be changed by the courts, without any change in Bill 101 itself.

So while the Charter may have brought language peace, or at least a climate of much reduced strife, it is not a carved-in-stone defining instrument of language practices. Rather, it should be viewed as one of the controlling elements in an evolving discussion about social practices.

Even Bill 101’s most basic asserted principle — its ringing declaration that “French is Quebec’s only official language” — is on closer examination a resounding statement of intention that flies in the face of constitutional, legal and practical reality. The right to use English is constitutionally guaranteed in the courts, in the legislature and in English schools. Further, it is legally guaranteed in health and social services legislation, whenever citizens deal with Revenue Quebec and in hundreds of other circumstances protected by various Quebec statutes.

The federal Official Languages Act recognizes official language minorities in all provinces. The English-speaking community of Quebec is by far the largest and in many ways the most complex.

The government of Quebec has denied and ignored the existence of an official language minority. How can there be such a thing in a jurisdiction with one official language?

Now, however, a dialogue has begun to create a secretariat in the premier’s office to address the needs of the English-speaking community and to begin to remedy the profound ignorance and indifference of the Quebec civil service to the fact of English Quebec.

Yes, our four decades under Bill 101 and our roughly half-century of language legislation have given rise to very real and relevant grievances. But this evolving process has also fostered discussion, provided us opportunities to engage and presented us venues to argue in our interest. Things don’t ever stay the same. And they don’t always get worse. Let’s work to make them better.

The rejection of a proposition made by the Young Quebec Liberals to allow French-speakers to English schools inspired Robert Dutrisac to observe enrolment decline in English school boards. Although French school boards also face slow demographic growth, Bill 101 limits free access to English schools. However, he states the vitality of the English-speaking community isn’t threatened because universities and CEGEPs are well frequented.

Even the QCGN hasn’t suggested to allow more French-speaking Quebecers in English schools to limit its enrolment decline. The QCGN rather wants Bill 101 to allow Commonwealth residents that immigrated to Quebec in English schools.

Since Bill 101 was passed some 35 years ago, English-speaking Quebecers have made tremendous efforts to speak the language of Quebec’s majority. We consider French to be the common language of Quebec. Most of us speak French every day, even if we speak English among ourselves, and in the privacy of our own homes. The majority of English-speaking Quebecers — 69 per cent of us — are bilingual. This reflects our integration in Quebec and our commitment to the French language.

In order to maintain a shaky linguistic truce, our post-Bill-101 generation has accepted restrictions on our language. Those who did not leave during the mass exodus of the 1970s have learned to live with Bill 101. However, we are opposed to any new measures that would undermine the vitality of our communities.

The overwhelming reaction of English-speaking Quebecers to Bill 14, the proposed overhaul of Bill 101, or the Charter of the French Language, has been negative.

Sylvia Martin-Laforge was interviewed by Michel C. Auger on Radio-Canada’s Pas de midi sans info show today to discuss concerns of the English-speaking community regarding new Bill 14 tabled last week.

Sylvia Martin-Laforge, Director General of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) reacts to Bill 14 and comments on impacts it would have on the English-speaking communities across Quebec in an interview she gave to CIBL Montreal (101.5) earlier today.